“How much is this?” she asked.
“Thirty-three fifty,” Zona said.
“Threethousand, threehundredand fifty dollars?” Lenore looked down at the money again. This was life-changing moneyfor her. Tingles moved up and down her body, from skull to soul, as she felt the complete love of God fill her.
He had not and would not abandon her here.
Then she did what Lenore always did when she became overwhelmed, whether it was something good or something bad.
She cried.
28
Brandon sat on Lenore’s couch, a completely new sound coming toward him from down the hall. He looked up from his phone to see her wearing a strappy pair of silver sandals to accompany the little black dress she’d bought in town yesterday.
A smile filled his whole face. First, at the sight of her walking and talking and breathing, and then at the way she struck a pose, that sexy hip jutting out and making everything male inside him come alive.
“Look atyou,” he said as he rose to his feet. He approached and drew her into his arms, leaning in close to her ear.
Because Zona had left the homestead on Friday, they were alone as usual. “I think we should skip church,” he whispered, his hands sliding around her waist. “You’re going to cause a whole commotion in that dress.”
“No.” But even as she protested by pushing against his chest lightly, she smiled.
“That dress is simply stunning,” he said, and kissed her cheek before backing up and telling himself to mind his manners and control his thoughts. “You’resimply stunning.”
“Do I need anything else?” Lenore asked.
“Just me and you, we’re all set.” He took her hand and led her past the small dining table and the brand-new, gleaming, stainless-steel fridge that had been delivered last night.
She’d gotten it as a floor model. It had a couple of dents down at the bottom on the freezer drawer, but it had saved her hundreds. He’d helped her move all her groceries from her cooler into the fridge, and she’d said he could put his things in there too.
Brandon had taken her up on that, and having a refrigerator reminded him that he still wanted to get cold storage under the back porch, and a goat pasture built, and a turkey enclosure fenced in.
They still had that pesky problem of water, Mitch’s wedding next weekend, and then Christmas and the new year—both of which would take Brandon and Lenore off the homestead to celebrate with their friends and family.
He felt an invisible clock hovering above his head, tick-tick-ticking down the time he had left here. He swallowed back the uncertainty of whether he and Lenore would last past February first, and he’d taken his concerns to his knees. The Lord had not answered him in any noticeable way.
As Brandon drove them to church, he recognized that he had started to drift again in his beliefs. Perhaps God had given him enough. Had grown weary of his pleas. Simply couldn’t provide more.
Lenore seemed lost in her own thoughts too, her hands folded politely in her lap, her gaze out the side window. They hardly spoke on the drive south, and when Brandon finally pulled into the pretty red-brick church with the tall steeple and stained-glass windows, he almost wanted to go home again.
Home.
The word sat in the front of his mind, and he honestly didn’t know where that was anymore. Hidden Hills? Or with Lenny on the homestead?
“I’m so nervous,” Lenore said, and Brandon looked over to her.
“What do you think is gonna happen?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Lenore said. “That’s what’s scary.” She looked at him with her expression full of trepidation. “Did you know I didn’t post on the job board for six months, because I was scared of what would happen if I did?”
She made a nervous scoffing sound. “I didn’t know who would apply. I didn’t know if I could trust my instincts when I met them. I didn’t know if they could do anything that I hadn’t been able to do. It was terrifying.”
She looked out the windshield toward the chapel. “This feels like that.” She turned her attention back to him. “Maybe we should just go home.”
Home.
The word once again echoed through his mind. He reached for her hand, folding it into both of his.
